A Trabant For Sale to Autoshiters!

[messerschmitt owner]

This is all sounding a bit "owners club".....

 

"Hi Mr Owners Club Member I want a Fiat 127 Sport gearbox"

"That'll be £100 for a used one with no warranty"

 

FFWD 2 months... I come across two Fiat recon gearboxes. All 100% kosher, paper work the lot.

Phone same Owners Club man...."Nah mate not worth a shit take 'em to the tip"

I mention that 2 months prev they were £100 a pop USED and he puts the phone down.

 

So in summary, OCs (and yes I have dealt with many, unfortunately) seem to have the

 

"I'm Buying" - Its 10p

"I'm selling" - It's £1.00

 

mentality.

I spend my life buying and selling stuff - it makes the world go round. However, let's talk cars!

 

My messerschmitt - bought for £200 in 1987 - whats it worth - more than I can possibly think of - is it for sale - no! Will it ever be for sale - not by me!

My smart roadster - bought for £8900 brand new in 2005 - ditto

My Bond - bought 89 - for £300 - not for sale

My Berkeley - bought 1990 - £2000 paid, number worth £5k - for sale - no! car for sale with/without number - no!

My XM - bought £600 - the best part of £2k spent on it in my ownership to maintain and improve it

This Trabant is probably outwith the price range I want to pay - however, all negotiations start somewhere!

 

I can offer what I want, the vendor can refuse the offer, we can agree to negotiate or we can walk away! End of story!

 

In this case, I can see the vendor wants more, I don't want to pay more, nor do I want to have to answer to you for any decision I may make.

 

My offer is based on what I think it is worth - the vendor's price (as yet unknown) on what they think it is worth. I'm not sentimental about it, but they may be! My idea of its worth is based on what it would cost for me to take it from 'locked in garage' to rocking and rolling and using on the road. My choice on how to spend my money, not yours!

[Guest]

If I knew how to I would post a picture of a handbag

[barefoot]

Here's my two bobs worth;

 

Trabbi bought in 99 for £400

Sold in 2005 on ebay for £380

It was exactly the same as the one in this thread, same colour same interior etc.

It was curiously modern in that it had 2 speed wipers electric screenwash hrw etc.

Dipstick for a fuel gauge - which I dropped into the tank, never to be seen again & replaced with a bit of garden cane.

It would do 100 kmph, I suspect it would do a tad (4mph) more but I never tried because my ears generally started to bleed at about 80 kmph.

I did do a couple of long journeys in it to Microcar rallies & coming back from Toddington at a steady 100 all the way it suddenly went very quiet & a little red light came on, on the dashboard, the charging light which indicated in this case that I had seized up the engine - how was I supposed to know that every ten miles or so when you're cruising at high speed, you're supposed to take your foot off the accelerator, let the revs drop to tickover (free-wheel gearbox) & then boot it up again & have another go?

Anyway, rocked it for a moment or so in third & it fired up quite cheerfully & went again.

So far then - noisy & not spectacularly comfortable.

Failed MOT every year on no seatbelts in the back, so I used to take the seat out for the re-test & then it would pass - same garage, I can be as arsey as the next bloke.

Not particularly economical, I used to calculate at every re-fill & never got better than 35mpg, which for 600cc is piss poor.

Then when you add in the cost of 2 stroke oil & the amount of time it used to take measuring it, it was not particularly cheap to run.

The engine itself was bizarre - although a two stroke it was not revvy - 4500 was pretty much your lot, 26 bhp I think, but shit loads of torque, accelerated like a little blue bastard & often caught out bigger more powerful cars - to about 40mph. Didn't smoke very much on synthetic two stroke oil - but 'four stroked' at low speed. This was explained to me but I didn't understand - it bucked like a pig on the over-run at low speed, but of course you shouldn't let it over run because you don't get the oil through the carb properly....

Insurance was not memorable but with LV surprisingly.

Don't know what else to say really, it was terrifyingly flimsy which is why I sold it in the end.

Duroplast shatters just like formica & the steel shell beneath was not hefty.

I would rather crash in a damp cardboard box.

Highlight of ownership was the LED flow-meter which flashed all sorts of colours like a comedy un-calibrated rev counter in response to throttle openings.

[TrabiOwner]

If top dollar price is wanted, then it'll need a battery, tax and MoT - it'll cost £200 automatically just for those simple three items!

 

I can do that but it would probably add more than £200 to the price simply because I don't really want to have to do it.

[Cavcraft]

Tell you what, let's destroy another 'for sale' thread, that'll learn 'em

 

Trabi: please post a price up, if nothing else it will stop speculation and you'll soon find out who is interested.

[TrabiOwner]

Right....I don't know what it's realistically worth and I was hoping to get around the £700 mark for it (that's put most people off already)....BUT.... for a quick and easy sale I would be open to offers as I really want it to go.

I already have 2 people saying they want to come and look at it.....so as they say "the early bird"......

[Father Ted]

so.... £700, ONO.

 

Not difficult is it?

[Angrydicky]

This looks tremendous fun

 

If it wasn't so close to Christmas and you weren't so far away etc etc